Chapter Text
The summer bonus magazine has been one of the most profitable things to come out of the emerald department in the last few years. A meeting was being held to discuss the plans on how to proceed. What was supposed to be a general discussion about rebranding turned into an all-out fight between Takano and the sales department.
“We are only two people! There is no way that can happen!” Takano screamed across the table. “Things are already behind as it is!”.
“How were we supposed to know that! The plan was already confirmed before your department decided to play hooky!”.
Ritsu was sitting next to Takano and could see the red in his eyes. Never before has he seen him this angry.
“I'm not the one who let that happen!”
Everyone looked over at Isaka who was casually eating a bag of chips watching the madness.
“Everyone had a reason for their vacation, if i give you someone will that be easier?” Isaka gives the bag of chips to his secretary who was obviously annoyed as everyone else.
“Even with that there is know way we can do a rebranding right now!”
How do you know? You haven't tried yet, Sales team, it's a go to proceed.” Isaka gives a thumbs up.
The rest of the meeting was focused on deciding who was going to be in the bonus of the magazine. As soon as it ended Takano left as fast as he could. Leaving Ritsu behind, who was also shocked at how things were going.
Grabbing his bag, he makes his way towards the door. He did not blame Takano for rushing out. He would have done the same thing if it wasn't for the fact that he did not get to take the medicine the doctor had given him due to spending the night at Takano's. He was fine until he heard the news about the rebranding. It was like one thing after another being piled up, causing him to stress out.
“Hey Onodera, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Ritsu turned back around to see Isaka with his secretary by his side, still with a happy attitude towards him that just made Ritsu even more pissed off.
“Sure.” not wanting to sound angry, but Isaka could tell right away, which only made him smile more.
“Good! I was going to let Takano know but he ran out, but I'm sending an assistant over to help you guys out later today!”
“Really? That would help a lot.” of course not as much as the two would hope but it was something.
“Yes, do you remember Takahashi? He has helped out in other departments.”
Of course, he remembered him. He had his number somewhere in his bag. But he has a kid, right? Did he have time to help them out?
“Okay it is settled, and one more thing, have you gone to that clinic yet?”
“Umm yes.” should he tell him? He is the company president, and he should know about these things. But was it okay? What if he told Takano before he even had the chance to.
“I. It was just a cold, I am okay now.”
“Great! Can't wait to see how the summer issue goes.”
When Ritsu entered the department, he was surprised to see the usual plushies that surrounded the workplace. Packed away neatly into boxes to be taken to the old building. With only two more days until the move, there was still a lot to get done. And with the bonus of the rebrand, Takano was not taking it well.
Lost in his work Takano was at his desk not paying attention to anything else and not wanting to disturb him. Ritsu checked with Kisa’s artists, going over all the emails that were sent at the time of the meeting. Things were not going to work out. The number of things to do was taking a toll on not just Ritsu's health but Takano's too. He looked as though he would fall asleep at any second.
For the last two days, Ritsu has been staying the night because his air conditioner needs repair. This made it easier for the two to get work done at off hours but Takano had rarely slept as Ritsu would fall asleep quickly as soon as he got to the apartment. He felt guilty for doing that, but it was like all of his energy had disappeared. And it was only the first week of the month. Ritsu could only imagine what would happen as it got closer.
Ritsu placed a hand on his stomach trying to focus on the task. It was not a great time for all of this to be happening. The stress from work was getting too much, would it be okay? He had heard stories from other departments about having a miscarriage due to the stress of being an editor. It was not the best job to have while starting a family. The thought made him sick to his stomach. He could not imagine something like that happening.
Ritsu got up quickly, heading to the washroom before Takano could notice he was gone. He spends the next few minutes washing his face, trying to calm down. The only way to keep from thinking about those thoughts was to focus on work. Anything about his pregnancy had to be kept in the back of his mind until everything at work was back to normal.
Returning to his seat, Ritsu could not help looking at the pile of work on his boss's desk. Compared to him, there would be no way Takano would be getting any sleep tonight again.
"And he is letting me stay with him through these the past two nights" even when it was out of hand. Takano was still making meals for the two and cleaning and letting him sleep in his bed, though he would have done that anyway. Ritsu could not help but feel guilty for all of this. His apartment was still too hot to go in and would not be ready for another day or two. He could not let Takano take care of him like he had been doing. He could make dinner for the two.
He had made curry before, but that is the only thing he knows how to make. Would Takano like that? But it was too hot for curry, so he had to think of something else, and there was no way he was going to get convenient food for him.
There had to be something, He was feeding Ritsu at least one meal a day. Even though he kept saying not to, Takano still went out of his way; this was the least he could do.
The phone rang, interrupting his thoughts. One of his authors was lucky enough that they would be on time this month. As long as there was no trouble, he could not take another thing happening. He took this as an opportunity to get the bonus panels covered while there was still time. This meant checking in on both his and Kisa's authors before the end of the day. And getting some insight on what to expect.
“What do you mean you have nothing planned?” Of course, one of the authors was going to have a problem.
“Well, I don't see why I should make a bonus story, there is just no reason for it.”
“B but we already announced it, your fans are waiting for the side story on your last issue, I already got it approved.”
“I know but I just want to focus on my new work, I just don't feel like those characters are going anywhere.”
“But it ended in a cliffhanger, the bonus was support to end the series!”
“The series is fine the way it is.”
“No it is not! Will you just listen for once!” The line went dead right after that, leaving Ritsu speechless. did he really just yell at an author like that? He could not believe he just did that.
He looked up to see Takano staring at him from his desk. Before looking at what he was doing. There was silence for the next few minutes as neither knew what to say. Ritsu was not the type to lash out at anyone like that. He slumped to his desk wishing for the day to end or at least for things to turn out differently.
Before either one could say anything, Isaka had walked into the department with Misaki in tow. Ritsu had already forgotten that he was going to assist them for who knows how long.
“Hello, just as I promised I have an assistant for the both of you! He has some experience already this should work out”
“Hello, my name is Takahashi Misaki. Nice to meet you. I hope we can get along.”
“One assistant is still not going to be enough!” Takano yelled from his desk. You really expect us to get everything done on time don't you!”
“T Takano, he is our boss, stop it.” Ritsu hissed at him before going over to Misaki, who was standing there not realizing the situation he had gotten himself into.
“Good to see you again Takahashi, I'm sorry it's become like this.” Ritsu nervously said as Takano continued to argue with Isaka in the background.
“It's okay he warned me this would happen, but I agreed anyway.” Misaki tried to talk over the noise that was causing the other departments to glance over. “Besides, like he said, I have some experience of what could be happening.”
“Oh, so you know we were given more work than we are used to with the whole staff on vacation?”
Misaki's eyes twitched as he tried to keep calm before walking back over to Isaka and whispering something into his ear aggressively stopping him from saying anything else. He looked with pure horror in his eyes as he stepped away not before announcing that he would talk to the printers and leaving the room.
“How did you do that!?” Takano, Ritsu were in a state of shock as he saw the president leave the room. Misaki just stood there like nothing happened. “Is there a secret we should be in on?”
“Well, I cannot really say but he owes me.”
“Whatever it is, it's really nice to meet you Takahashi.”
Later that night, Ritsu was over at Takano’s house for the time being as his air conditioner was still broken. With Takano in the shower, Ritsu put his plan into motion by making dinner for the two of them. It should have been simple enough, but the problem was he had no idea what to make.
Due to his messy lifestyle, the only things he could make were curry or eggs, and did not sound all too pleasing right now. Checking the fridge, Ritsu could only find leftovers from the night before. But just looking at the stir-fry was making him sick; it was like he could not stomach leftovers anymore. Making it difficult to go through with his dinner plan.
Why was he so focused on making dinner in the first place? Was it to show gratitude to Takano for letting him stay with him and not bringing up just how emotional he had gotten that night? Or was it because he wanted him in a good mood because he was debating telling him about the baby?
No, it was about a whole five-step plan he came up with. First is that he has to tell him that he loves him. That is something that has been held off for too long. He can't just tell him he is pregnant out of nowhere. And the stress of keeping it a secret was affecting him too much. It had only been a few days since he found out himself and it felt like he was making a mistake, and he did not know what to do. But one thing was sure he had to let Takano know before his doctor's appointment in two days.
Before he could come up with anything, Takano was already out of the shower, with only a towel wrapped around him, heading into the bedroom. Ritsu could only imagine what his response would be like. But one thing was certain he had to rip the Band-Aid off.
Without thinking, Ritsu marched into the bedroom when Takano had just put on his underwear. Making eye contact.
“Takano-san, there is something really important I need to tell you.” Ritsu said seriously.
“What is it?” Takano looked concerned and stopped getting dressed.
“You have nothing in the fridge, what are we eating?”
“Oh, I will order something.”
This was not going to be easy.